Texas News: October 1-15, 1996

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Texas News Archives (searchable)

• 10/15 - Ft. Hood Soldiers Gear Up for Persian Gulf Journey
• 10/15 - Man Wrongly Diagnosed with HIV Sues Lab
• 10/15 - Former Plano Mayor Pleads Guilty in Loan Probe
• 10/14 - Parents Consent to Surgery for Girl: The parents of a 10-year-old Fort Worth girl with a serious colon disorder consented to lifesaving surgery for their daughter Sunday after a monthlong legal battle with state child welfare officials.
  
  
  ....Steve and Patricia Stout, whose daughter Rachel suffers from severe ulcerative colitis, signed a consent form Sunday morning authorizing colon-removal surgery.
  ....The family's attorney, Larry Friedman, said the operation will be performed "fairly quickly" at Duke University Medical Center, where Rachel was taken earlier this month.
  ...."This is really an agonizing, painful, ordeal for them," Friedman said of the Stouts. ...."They believe that at this time, this was the only alternative."
  ....The decision ended a legal tug of war between the Stouts and Texas Child Protective Services that began early last month in Texas. The fight stretched to Canada and later back to Texas before Rachel ended up in North Carolina.
  ....Along the way, six doctors in three cities recommended surgery, but the Stouts held out hope that alternative treatment could save Rachel's life.
• 10/13 - Pumpkin growers feeling holiday crunch: Pumpkin growers in Texas are feeling the Halloween crunch.
  
  ....This early October, when growers usually ship and sell most of their pumpkins, there are fewer to go around.
  ....Roland Roberts, a vegetable specialist with the Texas Agricultural pumpkin patch - mostly 3,000 to 4,000 acres in the South Plains counties of Lubbock, Floyd, Bailey, Hale and Lamb.
  ....Cool September weather interfered with the ripening of some pumpkins, most of which were planted in June, Roberts said.
  ....Ben Roming, a pumpkin grower in Muleshoe, Texas, says there isn't much room for error.
  ...."If we don't get them sold in the next week or ten days, we won't get them sold," he said.
  Texas is not alone. In Virginia, rainy weather has led to a disastrous pumpkin harvest.
• 10/13 - Navy Ship Commissioned Honoring Hispanic Hero: Freddy Gonzalez posthumously took the lead Saturday, becoming the first Hispanic Texan to have a Navy ship commissioned in his honor for heroically guiding his platoon through Vietnam.
  ....The newly built, $1 billion destroyer is the nation's only active warship named for a Hispanic. Five other Navy ships have honored Hispanics but none remains on active duty, according to the Navy Historical Society in Washington, D.C.
  ....The USS Gonzalez was accepted at the Naval Station Ingleside during the Navy's traditional ceremony in which a vessel is received from its contractor.
  ....Marine Sgt. Alfredo Gonzalez of Edinburg died Feb. 4, 1968, after saving more than a dozen lives.
  ....Gonzalez, 21, was wounded three times in as many days. But he refused treatment and continued to lead his platoon, rescuing Marines until he was killed by a North Vietnamese rocket.
• 10/12 - Texas Kids Recognize Their Heroes
• 10/12 - 1997 Tobacco Trial Date Set: The state's $4 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry is headed for trial next September.
  ....Both a lawyer for one of the tobacco companies and Attorney General Dan Morales said they were anxious to get into the courtroom.
  ...."We are pleased that the trial judge has now given the parties a definitive date of Sept. 22, 1997, for the beginning of jury selection," Jack Maroney, attorney for Philip Morris, said in a phone interview from Texarkana.
  ...."From the outset, this case has represented an attack on a legal business amounting to nothing more than politically correct extortion by the attorney general," Maroney said.
  A Morales spokesman didn't immediately comment on Maroney's remarks.
• 10/12 - Game Over For New Jersey Police Officer: A New Jersey police officer has lost his chance to become a Texas millionaire.
  ....On Friday, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. dismissed the case of Scott Wenner. He had sued the Texas Lottery Commission over a $10.4 million Texas Lotto prize he says he rightfully won in 1994.
  ....Wenner's saga began when he paid $2 for the $1 ticket at a Pennsylvania hardware store that was selling tickets for a company called Pic-A-$tate, which actually bought the prize ticket at a north Houston liquor store.
  ....The Texas Lottery Commission announced in January 1995 that Wenner wouldn't be paid because Texas law prevents the resale of tickets for higher prices and prohibits sales outside the state.
• 10/11 - Lottery Scholarship Proposal Moves Forward
• 10/11 - Rule Woman Lives to Fiddle Around
• 10/10 - Honor student suspended for carrying Advil: A 13-year-old honor student spent Wednesday at home after being suspended for carrying a bottle of Advil in her backpack.
  ....Police dogs rooted out Brooke Olson's stash of the over-the-counter pain reliever on Monday, and the Riverwood Middle School student was suspended for one day.
  ...."I knew I was not supposed to bring that. I mistakenly forgot it was in my backpack," Olson said Tuesday. "I think that the punishment is way too severe for the crime."
  ....The middle school is located in Humble, about 15 miles northeast of Houston. Olson is enrolled in the school's gifted program.
  ....The girl said she put a bottle of Advil in her backpack on Sunday to help soothe a headache. She had taken the backpack to a friend's house for a sleepover.
  ....The offending bottle of Advil remained in the backpack when Olson took it to school.
  ....After attending her Monday gym class, the girl returned to her locker and found her backpack gone. Police officers took the bag to the office after they were alerted by police dogs trained to smell narcotics.
  ....When Olson went to report that her bag was missing, she was confronted by an assistant principal. She admitted she left the Advil in the backpack.
  ....Humble school district policy requires all medicines be brought in by parents and given to the nurse, who dispenses them to students, school district spokeswoman Karen Collier said.
  The girl's mother, Deborah Olson, said the penalty was unfair.
  ...."This was not crack cocaine or marijuana," Mrs. Olson said. "It was an innocent mistake on the part of a 13-year-old girl who forgot and left Advil in her backpack," Mrs. Olson said.
• 10/10 - Lawmen Can't Teach Anti-Drug Courses In Private Religious Schools: Harris County law enforcement officers can't take their drug and gang prevention courses into private religious schools, the county attorney's office says.
  .....In a ruling released this week, the county attorney's office said the anti-drug and anti-gang courses "appear to create an unconstitutional entanglement between government and religion."
  ....The U.S. Constitution as well as the one for Texas ensure that the affairs of the state and church are kept separate, the county attorney's office determined.
• 10/10 - Employees Union Calls for Ethics Investigation in Privatization Plan: Travis County Attorney Ken Oden and Travis County District Attorney Ronald Earle agreed Wednesday to investigate six former state employees who have taken jobs with private companies expected to bid for a $2 billion state welfare project.
  ....Oden and Earle, responding to a complaint from the Texas State Employees' Union, said they will look into the union's allegations of possible violations of the state's "revolving door" law. They added that no criminal investigation is under way.
  ....The union, which represents about 10,000 of the nearly 200,000 state employees, on Wednesday said the former state workers may have violated the state's "revolving door" law. The union said the employees helped develop the project just before going to work for the private companies.
• 10/10 - Sisters File State Suit After High Court Rejection: Two days after Debra Rowinsky's appeal was turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court, her daughters took up the fight she started more than three years ago on their behalf.
  ....Jessica and Jacqulynn Fowler, now 18 and 17, respectively, filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday in Brazos County District Court alleging that they were victims of persistent peer sexual harassment during their eighth grade year.
  ....The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider the case, which originally was filed by their mother. The high court left intact an appeals court ruling that school districts cannot be held financially responsible for sexual harassment or sexual assault among peers.
  ....The new lawsuit does not involve federal law.
• 10/9 - Anti-stalking proposals coming from Texas lawmakers
• 10/9 - Football Player Dies of Broken Leg: A Mineral Wells High School football player died Tuesday of complications from a broken leg suffered during a football game.
  
  ....Junior linebacker Shawn Nolen, 17, died at 12:31 a.m. Tuesday at Palo Pinto General Hospital in Mineral Wells. The cause of death was a blood clot lodged in a lung, officials said.
  ....The boy had been hospitalized since Friday night, when he suffered compound fractures to both bones in his lower left leg with 24 seconds left in Mineral Wells' 20-12 loss to Fort Worth Polytechnic, said school principal Clarence Holliman.
• 10/9 - Sweetwater Commission Eyes Entryways: The Sweetwater City Commission took another step Tuesday in a long-range plan to gain control of entryways in order to prevent unsightly and uncontrolled development.
  
  ....Commissioners adopted resolutions setting a November public hearing pertaining to two annexation areas.
  ...."The primary areas extend from West Broadway to the Coke plant to just west of the VFW and over to the Interstate back to the Union 76," said City Secretary Russ Thoma.
  ....The second area will be down Highway 70 south from the city limit line at Bradford Lane and extending one-half mile south on 70.
  ...."There are very few homes in any of the annexation areas," Thoma said.
  City services are already provided in the areas. A house-to-house survey conducted in June got favorable feedback from residents.
• 10/9 - Area Lawmen Kept Busy Searching: About 30 lawmen spent six hours Tuesday searching for three young men suspected of stealing a pickup in Brownwood and wrecking it in Coahoma.
  
  ....The three were found hiding in the rodeo arena by Coahoma city worker Billy Sullivan about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.
  ....Dustin Wayne Lindley, 17, Justin Todd McCoy, 17, and a 15-year-old male, all from Brownwood, were charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
  ....The juvenile is being held in Howard County juvenile detention center. Lindley and McCoy remain in Howard County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bonds.
  ....Howard County sheriff's deputies, Big Spring police, Department of Public Safety officers, two DPS helicopters, and tracking dogs from the state prison unit in Snyder joined the search.
• 10/8 - Gun Death Suicides Up in Texas: Far more gun deaths among the middle-aged and elderly are suicides rather than accidents or homicides, especially among those over age 65, according to federal data revealed Monday by a group of handgun-control advocates.
  
  
  ....The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence used the statistics as it launched a public-service advertising campaign urging all gun owners to keep their weapons unloaded and under lock and key.
  ....The statistics were compiled from data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Alicia Horton, the group's associate education director.
  ...."The suicide risk is five times higher in homes with firearms," Horton said at a Monday news conference.
  ....Suicides accounted for about 83 percent of the gun deaths among Texans over 65 during the period 1986-92, according to statistics provided Monday by the Washington, D.C.-based group.
  ....The fraction dropped to 63 percent for Texans between ages 45 and 64, Horton said.
  Nationally, 88 percent of those over 65 who died of a gunshot wound were suicides. Of those killed by gunfire between ages 45 and 64, 69 percent were suicides.
  ....Earlier this year, the CDC said that 19 percent of the 384,262 U.S. suicides from 1980-1992 were committed by people age 65 or older. Guns were the most common method, used by 74 percent of men and 31 percent of women.
• 10/8 - Area Jails to House Wisconsin Prisoners: Crime not only pays, it pays the residents of Comanche County well.
  ....Sheriff Bill Works and the sheriffs of Palo Pinto, Hood and Johnson counties signed a one-year contract with the State of Wisconsin on Monday to house prisoners that are overloading the Badger State's crowded county jails.
  ....The profits and the cut to participant counties' taxpayers are expected to be substantial, Works said.
  ...."It's a money-making venture," Works said. "We operate under the tax dollar here, and this definitely gives us some relief. It's that much more of our budget we won't have to get from the county's residents."
  .....All of the county jails will receive $39.50 per inmate per day. The number of inmates each jail receives depends upon the number of open beds.
• 10/7 - $50 Million Airport Trial Begins: Two restaurant executives who blame towering gate information signs at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for their serious car accident are seeking $50 million in damages in a trial that begins today.
  
  
  ....Jury selection is slated to get under way in the showdown over the five-story high signs on the airport's main thoroughfare that display information on American Airlines flights.
  ....Anwar Soliman and Ralph Roberts, top executives of the California-based Grandy's chain, were seriously injured in 1993 when their car rear-ended another one that had stopped in the traffic lane in front of the signs. That car had stopped because the car in front of it had stopped so the people in it could read one of the signs, the lawsuit contends.
  ....Soliman and Roberts, who are suing the airport and the Fort Worth-based carrier, say that DFW and American officials were negligent when they built the electronic signs.
  ...."We plan to tell the whole inside story of how power and politics led to these signs being built," said Mark Werbner, the men's attorney.
  ....The lawsuit contends the airport was pressured into allowing American to build the signs despite protests from staff members and public safety officials that the signs posed a danger to drivers.
• 10/7 - Casting Staff for Film on Tejano Star Surprised by Low Extras Turnout: A casting director expected thousands of people to volunteer as extras for a film based on the life of slain Tejano star Selena Quintanilla-Perez.
  ....But instead of a flood, a "trickle of people" showed up Saturday at the Carousel Cafe & Bakery to sign up.
  ...."Everybody in this town who was involved - the police department, the hotel, the neighborhood - was freaking out because they said there wouldn't be enough room to handle this," said Sally Jackson, an independent casting director.
  ....Her credits include "The Milagro Beanfield War," "City Slickers" and, most recently, Bruce Willis' "Last Man Standing."
  ...."We were ready for anything this morning," she said.
  ....Despite the multiple locations for potential extras to leave their photos and information cards, only 693 prospective extras had done so by day's end.
• 10/6 - Anti-Abortion Group Targets High School Students: Anti-abortion protesters have sparked debate with sidewalk demonstrations outside of a suburban high school, a tactic the group's leader says will be taken nationwide in a campaign targeting students.
  
  ....Holding graphic signs and hawking brochures condemning abortion, members of Operation Rescue told students they hope to bring "the gospel of Jesus Christ" and the truth about abortion to high school campuses.
  ...."We are going to turn our eyes to the high schools of the nation," the Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue National, said as he demonstrated outside of North Garland High School last week. "This is the start, right here in Garland."
  ....Other demonstrations are planned later this month at high schools in Garland, where Benham lives. The group plans to take the campaign nationwide next year, he said.
  ....By targeting students with a campaign centered on preventing unwanted pregnancy, the Dallas-based group can take the offensive instead of being on the defensive as has been the case with traditional demonstrations at abortion clinics, Benham said.
• 10/6 - Skydiving accident kills woman on ground: Authorities say a man parachuting into a high school football stadium during pregame ceremonies spun out of control into two people on the ground, killing a woman and injuring her husband.
  ....The freak accident occurred before Friday night's game between Spearman and Childress as two parachutists were drifting to the field with the game ball.
  ....Police said the wind apparently caught one of the chutes and sent the jumper, Rich Yanke of Dumas, spinning wildly.
  ....Yanke noticed he was headed toward spectators in the grandstand and corrected his spin, but he crashed into two members of the ground crew from his parachuting company, Star Light Sky Sport.
  ....Sang Pillon, 48, died about 15 minutes after the accident. She was taken to Hansford County Hospital, which listed her cause of death as head trauma.
  ....Her husband, Pierce Pillon, 44, suffered a fractured elbow and Yanke a fractured pelvis.
• 10/5 - Fed Court Denies Perot Debate Chance: A federal appeals court rejected Ross Perot's last ditch attempt Friday to sue his way onto the debate stage with President Clinton and Bob Dole.
  
  
  ....It was Perot's second defeat of the day: He was also turned down in efforts to force the television networks to sell him more blocks of prime time.
  ....The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a district court order dismissing the lawsuits of Perot and another third-party presidential candidate, John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party.
  ....Perot's lawyers had complained that the Commission on Presidential Debates, which excluded him, used criteria that went beyond Federal Election Commission regulations and that the FEC delegated its power to the private group.
  ....The debate commission's members - five representatives each of the Democratic and Republican parties - ruled Perot and Hagelin did not have a realistic chance of being elected and did not invite them to the debates.
• 10/5 - Hazing Investigated at Tech: Campus police are investigating possible criminal wrongdoing following reports that a Texas Tech social fraternity's national chapter suspended its charter for hazing violations.
  
  ....Sigma Phi Epsilon representatives have pulled the local chapter's charter until the fall 1999 semester. The university already had suspended the fraternity Tuesday, school spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.
  ....Hazing is illegal in Texas.
  ....The father of a Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge complained Monday to the Dean of Students of his son's mistreatment by the fraternity this fall, Sommermeyer said.
  ....Members of the fraternity could face academic discipline as well as criminal charges pending an investigation, he said.
• 10/5 - Open Records Advocates Appeal to Legislature: Open records advocates Friday called on the Texas Legislature to free up information on criminal cases following a state Supreme Court ruling that closed off much of the public's access to such information.
  
  ...."The Texas Supreme Court decision changed the way Texas had been treating access to law enforcement records over the past 20 years," said Laura Elkind, vice president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
  ...."A lot of the law enforcement records that we were used to getting without a problem are now no longer available."
  ....A ruling in the Texas Supreme Court case, known as Holmes vs. Morales, came down this summer and said, essentially, that only the most basic facts of criminal cases had to be divulged to the public.
  ....Previously, the Texas attorney general had determined in legal opinions that law enforcement could keep information confidential while a case was pending, but that once it was resolved, most information should be open to the public.
  ...."The ruling overturned 20 years of attorney general opinions," said Loretta DeHay, deputy chief of the open records division of the Texas attorney general's office.
  ....Ms. DeHay said the court determined there was nothing specific in the language of the law that required authorities to free up information once a case was closed.
• 10/4 - Cool Front Blankets State: Temperatures dipped into the 60s across Texas Thursday as a cool front blanketed most of the state.
  
  ....It was cloudy and cool in North Texas, with winds at 5-15 mph and temperatures ranging from the mid-60s to the low-80s. It was expected to remain the same Friday, with a slight chance of showers to the west.
  ....South Texas skies were mostly cloudy with scattered showers Thursday afternoon. Temperatures ranged from the 70s in the Hill Country to the 80s elsewhere.
  ....South Texans can expect a cold front to move much further southward through Friday. Temperatures will fall into the 60s in the Hill Country to the 70s ahead of the front. Highs will range from the 70s behind the front to the 80s ahead of it. A chance of rain will remain in the region through most of the weekend.
• 10/4 - Bush Appoints Chief Justice: Gov. George W. Bush announced the appointment of Justice John T. Boyd of Amarillo as chief justice of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas.
  
  ....Boyd has served as a justice of the Seventh Court of Appeals since 1981.
  ....Boyd, who has served as chairman of the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct and chairman of the judicial section of the State Bar of Texas, will replace retiring Chief Justice Charles L. Reynolds.
• 10/3 - O'Hair's Son Asks for Help Finding Her: Declaring it time to solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance, the estranged son of missing atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair has asked for police help in finding her.
  
  
  ....William J. Murray has officially reported as missing his mother, half-brother Jon Murray and daughter Robin Murray O'Hair. All vanished last fall.
  ...."I'm seeking closure. They are either alive or dead," said Murray, 50, who became a Christian years ago after breaking with his mother.
  ...."I deserve closure, and so do the American Atheists, so do the people who sent them millions of dollars over the years and so do the media," he told the San Antonio Express-News in an interview Tuesday.
• 10/3 - New Houston Stadium May have Future: A partnership that has conditionally agreed to buy and develop land for a downtown baseball stadium in Houston has the option of later buying back the site, the Texas Journal of the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
  
  ....The agreement regarding a retractable-roof stadium for the Houston Astros is outlined in a letter of intent signed last month by the City of Houston, Harris County, the Astros and the Houston Sports Facilities Partnership.
  ....If voters approve a financing plan in a Nov. 5 referendum, the partnership - headed by Enron Corp. Chairman Ken Lay - will donate land for the stadium to Harris County.
• 10/3 - Farmers Glad Drought Over: The fickle nature of farming probably made it inevitable: Growers who had suffered under the weight of a three-year drought anxiously waited last month for rain ... to stop.
  
  ....The very soil that parched much of Texas' wheat crop last spring turned so soggy earlier last month that farmers couldn't get into their muddy fields to plant wheat, reap hay or pick cotton.
  ...."Anytime it dries up you want to get out there and get the weeds under control," said Karen Terrell, manager of Equity Country Inc., the grain elevator in this far northeastern Panhandle hamlet. "Normally the fields are clean this time of year."
  ....Mrs. Terrell and others in the state's wheat belt are quietly optimistic that three years of harvest-devastating drought has ended.
• 10/3 - Murder Suspect Sought: Pearland -police searched Wednesday for a security guard they believe shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, her two small children and her current boyfriend.
  
  ....Authorities issued a capital murder warrant for Virgil E. Martinez, 28, of Houston, Capt. Jeff Adkins of the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department said.
  ...."We feel we should have him in custody before long," Adkins said. "All of the evidence points to Mr. Martinez."
  ....Veronica Fuentes, 27, was shot 14 times with a 9 mm semiautomatic weapon in the front yard of her gray and white trailer home late Tuesday night, Adkins said.
  ....Her children, 5-year-old Joshua and 3-year-old Casandra, were found dressed in pajamas and lying side-by-side in a bed in a back room, Adkins said. Casandra had five bullet wounds and Joshua three.
• 10/2 - States will have contribute to keep Amtrak lines: If Texas and other states want to keep their imperiled Amtrak passenger rail routes beyond mid-1997, they're going to have to put up some money, says Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
  
  ....The Texas Republican, who chairs the Senate surface transportation and merchant marine subcommittee, said Tuesday that the Texas Legislature will have to decide whether to provide funds to help keep the Texas Eagle running beyond May.
  ...."Every state that is going to keep Amtrak is going to put up money, and that's as it should be," Hutchison said in an interview with reporters for Texas news organizations. "We can have a federal-state partnership, but the states will have to determine if (continued rail service) is a priority for them."
  ....Amtrak has targeted for elimination the St. Louis-to-San Antonio leg of the Texas Eagle and three other lines, citing a need for operational savings. The other targets are the Pioneer route between Denver and Seattle; the Desert Wind service between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles; and the Lake Shore Limited, connecting Boston and Albany, N.Y.
• 10/2 - Former mayor could lose concealed weapons permit: While the Department of Public Safety continues to implement the state's concealed gun carry law, certain problems already have been noted and lawmakers say they're ready to deal with them.
  ....One such problem comes in the case of former Krugerville Mayor Harry Richards.
  The 56-year-old contractor left office this year after a decade as mayor in the town of 750 near Denton.
  ....In May, Richards, a concealed gun permitholder, pleaded no contest to violating the state's Open Meetings Act. The law says in part that public notice of government meetings must be posted at least 72 hours before the meeting.
  ....While Richards pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge, state officials said they could be forced to revoke his permit.
  ....According to the concealed carry law, certain crimes, including Class B misdemeanors, must be reported to the DPS. The agency must determine whether the violator should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon.
• 10/2 - Sharp: Property values up $24 billion: Property values in Texas school districts rose nearly $24 billion to a total of $660 billion in 1995, according to the state comptroller.
  ....The 3.75 percent increase was the second year in a row that the independent school districts' property values were up, Comptroller John Sharp's office reported in a publication released Tuesday.
  ....Taxable values increased in about 63 percent - 649 - of the school districts, with an average increase of more than 7 percent.
  ....About 14 percent of school districts - 148 - had property values increase more than 10 percent from last year. Twenty-six of those saw values rise more than 20 percent.
  ....Values dropped in 389 districts by an average of less than 7 percent. About 10 percent of the districts - 102 - saw property values decrease more than 10 percent, with 10 of them experiencing more than a 20 percent drop.
• 10/1 - Gov. Bush Shows Up for Jury Duty
• 10/1 - Morales, Gramm Square Off Over DARE Program
• 10/1 - State Agency: TU Owes Customers $105 Million For Overcharges
• 10/1 - Morales Named to Task Force: Texas Attorney General Dan Morales has been named to a federal child support task force.
  
  ....Morales announced Monday that U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed him to the panel, which is charged with enhancing the coordination of criminal prosecution of deadbeat parents.
  ....Morales' appointment comes shortly after several state lawmakers have called for a new state agency to handle child support collection in Texas.
  ....But the attorney general has defended his effort and says his appointment to the task force is more evidence that Texas is a leader in the fight to collect child support.